PORT ORANGE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida lawmaker has died just days after she ended her re-election campaign to enter hospice care.
Florida Senate leaders said Tuesday that state Sen. Dorothy Hukill had succumbed to cancer. She was 72.
With great sadness, we inform you our friend and colleague Senator Dorothy Hukill has passed away. The prayers of the entire Senate family are with Senator Hukill’s family and friends, and we join in their grief over this terrible loss. pic.twitter.com/nGKGiOmYov
— Florida Senate (@FLSenate) October 2, 2018
The Republican lawmaker served for eight years in the Florida House before she was elected to the Florida Senate in 2012. In the Florida Senate, she served as chair of the Committee on Education.
Her senate district covered areas south of Daytona Beach and the northern part of the Space Coast.
Before entering state politics, Hukill served as mayor of Port Orange, near Daytona Beach.
Hukill announced last Friday that she was ending her re-election bid to go into hospice care for a reoccurrence of cancer. She was treated for cervical cancer in 2016.